Island



CUIALEN IVHIPPLE, 0F PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

MACHINE FOR COMBING FIBROUS MATERIALS.

Specication of Letters Patent N o. 23,782, dated April 19, 1859.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, CULLEN -WHIPPLn, of the city and county of Providence, in the State of Rhode Island, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Combing )Vool and other F ibrous Substances; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings making a part of the same, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

Figure 1 is a side view of a machine containing my improvements. Fig. 2 is an end view. Fig. 3 is a top view showing the wool in its passage from the delivering rolls to the funnel through which the finished sliver passes. F ig. 4 is a view of the opposite side of the machine showing the arrangement of the gearing and belting.

It is well understood that wool and other fibrous substances can be combed with much greater ease if the operation is performed upon the fibrous material while it is heated. It is customary therefore to keep the atmosphere of the rooms where this process is carried on at a very elevated temperature, but I am unacquainted with any machine which has successfully applied this principle by working the fibrous substance while in direct contact with a heated surface. Again, it is very obvious that the more nearly the brous substance can be combed in a direct line the straighter will the fibers of the finished sliver be laid and the less will be the accumulation of noils 7 while the productive capacity of the machine, no less than its durability, will be increased in proportion as the necessity of overcoming the momentum and inertia of heavy cylinders and other cumbrous mechanism alternately in motion and at a state of rest is successfully avoided.

To obtain the fullest advantage from combing the wool or other fibrous substance while in a heated state, by an arrangement for keeping the instruments by which the combing is effected at an elevated temperature, and by keeping the fibrous substance itself while the operation is being` performed, in contact with a heated surface, as well as to avoid the circuitous path in which the fibrous material in all other machines made to travel is the object of my invention. In accomplishing this I claim that I have also greatly increased the productive capacity of the class of machines by simplifying the mechanism and thereby enabling it to be run at a much higher speed.

In Fig. 1 the lap of wool (colored red) is represented as passing between the two delivering rolls A and B. From these rolls it is conducted upon the top of the hot chest T (brick color) which is heated by admitting steam to it or by other means. The top lid of this chest is formed into a series of upright plates arranged regularly at such distance apart as will permit a row of gill combs-a, a, a, a to be placed and move up and down freely in each of the spaces there by occasioned. In front of the hot chest but in close proximity to it is arranged two or more rows of fine screen combs Z7, o, which are capable of rising above and falling below the top surface ofthe hot chest nearly simultaneously with the gill combs. Suppose now the lap to be drawn over the surface of the hot chest the gill combs-a, a, a, c and the line screen combs-JJ, 5,-being at their lowest point. The jaw D operated by the cam G (on the main shaft) working against the treadle G descends and holds the lap firmly against the top plate of the chest. The revolving comber C, at the extremity of the arm U is now made to rise by means of the motion communicated to the arm U from the crank F (on the main shaft) transmitted through the connection C and bell crank E E (colored yellow). The end of the lap which projects beyond the jaw is thus combed as shown in position 1-the revolving comber C being driven by a spur gear.

A pair of nippers K mounted on a cross head which slides between the guides-O, O in a plane the same as the plane of the top of the hot chest produced or in a plane parallel thereto now approach and at the same time the arm U operated by the same crank F descends and brings the comber C to its lowest position. In the meantime by means of a cam on the main shaft acting upon the treadle levers N and H the gill combs a, a, c a and the screw combs-b, Z9 have been raised above the top of the hot chest and thrust through the lap-this done, the cam Gr permits the jaw D to relax its pressure and to rise. The nippers have now arrived withinl reach of the end of the lap which has been combed as described and seizing it, commence to move away from the hot chest drawing the fibrous material through the heated gill combs and the fine screen combs until in their course they draw out a portion of it, and carrying that portion along, deliver it upon an endless apron formed of card clothing arranged underneath the nip pers as shown in position 3. The means by which the nippers are made to open and close at the proper periods of time through the action of the cam I on the main shaft is clearly shown in the drawings while the office of the brush -cZ- is to brush down and thereby insure the depositing of the fibrous material upon the apron upon the instant that the jaws of the nippers are relaxed.

While the nippers are engaged in depositing the fibrous material that has been combed, upon the apron as just described, the revolving comber C is at work upon the projecting end of the lap close to the fine screen combs. As the nippers again approach the revolving comber falls below their path and the operation previously described is repeated. A sliver is thus formed upon the endless apron and is carried along by it until it reaches the delivering rolls P P when it is passed between them in one continuous sliver and deposited where desired.

As the revolving comber C descends to its lowest position it comes in Contact with the revolving cylindrical brush L by which the dirt and short fibers are removed from it. The cylinder -M covered with card clothing in turn takes up the material so collected, upon its surface from whence by means of the single comb, Q, attached to the vibrating arm E, it is taken off and dropped into the receptacle for the noils.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent isl. Arranging the series of gill combs a a a a with a hot chest or its equivalent in such manner that said combs can be alternately sheathed, and protruded from between heated plates in the manner substantially as described for the purposes specified. y 2. I claim the combination of the stationary heated chest T with the movable jaw D the two so combined operating to hold the fibrous substance firmly, while the front end is being combed.

3. I claim arranging the series of fine screen combs b, b with the heated chest T substantially in the manner described for the purposes specified.

4. I claim the arrangement and combination of the revolving cylinder, C, for first combing the front end of the sliver-the series of fine screen combs b, b, for combing the back end of the sliver and the nippers K, for drawing the sliver through the screen combs and delivering it upon the apron the who-le combination as arranged operating to draw and comb the wool or other fibrous material in a straight line and to deliver it in a position to be formed into a continuous sliversubstantially as described.

CULLEN WHIPPLE.

Witnesses:

JAMES LANCELOTT, NOBLE T. GREENE. 

